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An anonymous reader writes "Wil Wheaton just announced a new TV show he's hosting and producing. It'll air on SyFy this summer, starting May 27th. Here's how he describes it: 'The Wil Wheaton Project is a weekly roundup of the things I love on television and on the Internet, with commentary and jokes, and the occasional visit from interesting people who make those things happen. It's sort of like Talk Soup for geeks, with a heavy focus on those hilariously bad paranormal reality shows (in fact, that's where the whole thing started a year ago, but as we worked on the show more and more, we discovered that there were lots of scripted paranormal shows that provided a ton of comedic material. When we expanded to cover the scripted shows, we discovered that nobody was doing a show like this that was just focused on the genre shows that nerds like us love, and we decided that we'd make that show because of reasons.)' He adds, '... if I read correctly between the lines during our meetings with the Syfy executives, this is just the beginning of the network formerly known as Sci-Fi returning to its science fiction roots, which is awesome.'"

I don't know if I'm a nerd like us any more. I mean, I have an obsessive knowledge of trilobite fossils, and given a random sentence from any of the Harry Potter books I can tell what book and chapter it is from, but I don't feel like I belong with these kinds of people. What's left for me? What am I? How did pop-culture steal my identity?

Many people have bought into the cultural comodificiation of "nerd culture" or "geek culture" [youtube.com] -- Which is a largely fabricated phenomena constructed by corporations to sell you a product, just like "hipster culture", "hippie culture", "thug culture", "punk culture", "rave culture", etc, have been appropriated reshaped normailzed and sold to the ignorant masses at a mall near you.

"Geek" and "nerd" wasn't initially desirable, much as "thug" wasn't a prestigious label for minority inner city youths, but it is arguably now desirable to be called "nigga", "thug", "geek" or "nerd" by peers. The rise of "geek" or "nerd" or "thug" or "punk" culture did not happen over night nor without the help of commercial interests. Contrast this with the similarities among hackers which emerged without the media's attention [catb.org] (whereafter their image was wrongly portrayed in the media). The thug, hippie, punk and other counter cultures began organically as well before they were appropriated and perverted by the corporate interests.

Pay attention to the media's portrayals of sympathetic "nerds" and "geeks". Do you remember Urkel? Screech? Revenge of the Nerds? Weird Science? During much of the 80's and 90's the token 'nerd' sidekick and his persecution in media created an artificial Poindexter to be the target of shame, exploited for laughs, and sympathy. This construction of the Poindexter identity and subsequent transformation into cool-ness as a "child geniuses" to sell parents on "intelligence boosting" toys and videos is responsible for what you now call "nerd" or "geek" culture: Doogie Howser MD, Dexter's Lab, Jimmy Neutron, etc. The construction of "nerd/geek culture" is primarily artificial. Now it's "cool" to be a "nerd" or "geek", but those terms are as meaningless now as the term "nigga".

Meanwhile, in reality, much as similarities among hackers appeared organically, commonalities among avid gamers and other passionate introverted hobbyists. [wikipedia.org] Most of these similarities appeared without mimicry, and cross culturally esp. in the case of hackers, thus are not socially constructed by nature. I have a hard time reconciling the identity of "nerd" and "geek" culture as sold in media as representative of the hobbyist subcultures given that the "nerd" and "geek" identities do not match the prevalent traits of the subcultures they are attributed to: [catb.org]

Very few hackers actually fit the National Lampoon Nerd stereotype, though it lingers on at MIT and may have been more common before 1975. At least since the late Seventies backpacks have been more common than briefcases, and the hacker ‘look’ has been more whole-earth than whole-polyester.

The actual introverted hobbyist subcultures that are branded "nerd" or "geek" have nothing to do with the actual "nerd" or "geek" identity. Hackers had more in common with the hippie subculture than "nerd" or "geek". Gamers had more in common with the skater subculture. Science fiction and comic book fans have more in common with the otaku (anime enthusiast) subculture. But comparatively the subcultures are as different from each other as "jocks" are from "kickers", or "preps" are from "goths". Yes, even these once organic identities have been appropriated reshaped and sold. There is a country-western song, "I'm sexier on the Internet"... See? Normalized and easier to digest.

Congratulations. You are not a geek or nerd. Nigger, Nerd, and Geek are derogatory terms, which now have non-deragatory uses thanks to the commodification of culture. Though some are celebrating the mainstream interest and "coming out" of the enthusiast closet, I'd never call myself a "nerd" or "geek" except i